Leadership Without the Burnout

Challenge: Building cohesive product teams across different time zones, work cultures, and communication styles. Nordic directness vs. Indian relationship-building. 3-hour overlap vs. 24-hour async work.

Approach: Established clear communication norms that honor both cultures. Created space for building relationships, not just completing tasks. Used async retrospectives to give everyone voice regardless of timezone. Focused on outcomes over hours logged.

Ongoing practice: Continuously refining these approaches with each new team member and project. Building high-performing teams that leverage cultural differences as strengths. Reduced meeting overhead while maintaining strong connections across locations. Focus on sustainable practices that scale as teams grow.

Challenge: Traditional retrospectives favored the loudest voices. Introverts, non-native speakers, and people in wrong timezones were underheard. Meeting fatigue was real.

Approach: Shifted to async retrospectives where team members share thoughts when they’re ready. Created structured prompts that encourage reflection. Made space for written responses that can be more thoughtful than live reactions. Still have occasional sync sessions for deeper discussions.

Outcome: More participation from previously quiet team members. Better quality feedback with time to think. Reduced meeting hours while improving team health visibility. Documented patterns emerge over time.